Stepping through programs

Some cheap keyboards have just two knobs in order to sweep up and down through their GM program numbers.

Is the Midihub able to do such stepwise increment action ? For instance, I’m pressing a specific note over and over again, so that the Midihub sends program changes in turn and increases the program number every time?

Hello Alexander!

The short answer to your question is “Not natively, but…”!

There have been a number of posts about similar requests, so Blokas might have it on a list of improvements for a future update.

This topic covers two patches related to Program Changes with links to patchstorage.
The second patch does the incrementing/decrementing I think you’re looking for. Would need adapting if you want to use a key-press.




postscript
Also, there is this patch which can be adapted to cycle up/down through up to eight presets,/programsetc.
Probably not useful for you Alexander; I mention it for future readers who might not need 128 “states”.
For them, I’d recommend it over the others because it needs no physical-loopback.

Thank you, resonotter.
I’m afraid that’s too complicated for me, or more honestly, too much work for so little.
At a certain point, I have to say: let’s computers work for us and not the other way around.
Thank you anyway for your effort.
Alexander

(moved from other topic)

Yes, Alexander, they are tortuous ways of getting Midihub to do what it really doesn’t want to (but, in their defence, they do precisely what the two users asked for!)

Some extra suggestions (made without knowledge of your current workflow):

  • get a simple two button controller which would remember state…
    …it could attach to one of your keyboards on an unused channel and input to Midihub without taking up an extra Midihub port
    Midihub can then transform the incoming event (usually CC) into a Program Change
  • Or do the same with a one-knob from a small controller.
  • If, for a particular performance, you have just 8 programs you’d like to cycle between then try the Giedrius patch linked above. (maybe that’s also “too much work for so little”?). That has the advantage of being able to choose which 8 in which order you’d like them.

Thank you, resonotter, for your suggestions. Currently, I plan to control sounds of my expander by pressing keys on the upper keyboard, or, even better, I can use my SubZero MiniControl to do the same thing by using the 9+ buttons that it has.

I am probably not the typical MidiHub user. Instead of playing around with faders and knobs in order to create sound patterns, which is a lot of fun for sure, I’d rather like to learn an instrument to perfection, like the piano in my case. The only thing I want is to change sounds and split the keyboard in two or three zones with different sounds, and probably control reverb or other things by faders.

So besides my first (successful) attempt to split the keyboard into Upright Bass, Guitar and Piano, I like to switch to a 2-split Jazzbass and Rhodes, or a 2-split of Lower Manual and B3 Organ, and I think I can achieve that.

I can put this into the same MidiHub patch and as a consequence I don’t need to change MidiHub patches. Likewise, the stepping through programs (my original question) is no longer nexessary.

Here is my computerless setup:

Under the mixer resides the heart of all: the sound engine Ketron SD2. The Hama Midi Duplicator is not used at the moment because when I connect the Blokas MidiHub to the computer (in order to edit patches), it only connects when I directly connect the Blokas MidiHub to the computer. Blokas MidiHub does not connect to the computer via the Hama Midi Duplicator even when no other devices are connected to the Hama Midi Duplicator. IS THIS A KNOWN BUG???

What is a Hama Midi Duplicator?

I’m sorry this was not a good name. It’s just a USB hub which can of course be used for USB Midi signals.

So the problem is this: When I attach the Midihub via this simple USB Hub, the editor does not recognize the MidiHub anymore. When I attach it directly, then it is recognized.

If it’s a USB MIDI host, it’s probably only dealing with USB MIDI part of the USB protocol. Midihub uses CDC / COM USB profile for communication with the editor. The USB MIDI host would have to route it accordingly, otherwise the Editor communication gets cut off.

You could use a Raspberry Pi in its place, have it route USB MIDI around, and run Midihub Editor on the Pi, access it remotely from your laptop.

No, it’s not a USB MIDI host, which I use too, but for something different.

It’s a simple device that connects multiple USB devices to either a power outlet or a computer.

Does USB MIDI of Midihub work when connected through it? What OS are you using?

Yes, they both work, when used independently.
I’m still using Windows 7.

I’m sorry my answer does not apply to what you asked.

The correct answer is: I don’t use USB MIDI of Midihub when performing. I just use the the USB connection of the Midihub in order to access the editor. But this doesn’t work when the USB hub is in between.

Could you post a screenshot of Device Manager when it’s connected via the USB hub and another when it’s connected directly? You should see Midihub under “Sound, video and game controllers” as well as “Ports (COM & LPT)” categories, please have those expanded when taking the screenshot. If it’s not working correctly, it could end up under “Unknown devices” or “Other devices”.

Here is the screen shot.
There is no difference in the device manager, MidiHub is always present regardless of whether it’s directly connected or via the USB Hub.
What I have seen now, however, is that the editor connects through the USB Hub after a waiting time of about 2 minutes. When directly connected, it’s instantaneous.

Another thing is that the Midihub does not show incoming data on the MIDI Monitor, in either case, although the LED’s on the MidiHub blink.

Did you select some particular pipe when observing this? It only shows things when some pipe is selected.

The Device Manager seems to show that it recognized the device and the drivers are present and it knows how to load them. The other part is how the host OS deals with the USB hub and its drivers, and enumerating devices connected through it. We don’t have any control over this from our side, but I’d say it could be some software & OS level issue, maybe things could improve by searching for updated USB hub drivers, motherboard firmware or windows updates, etc…

I see that Midihub Editor in the screenshot is in a ‘not responding’ state - this is very likely because it made a blocking API call involving USB Serial API, which is handled by Windows and its drivers, and it takes very long before returning control to Midihub Editor process.

No, I did not select a pipe. That was the problem.
My USB Hub is not recognised by the Device Manager. I think this could be the problem.
Never mind, thank you for your support.

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